When I was a little kid in church, I heard many rumors through my parents who donated the least and the most to the church. I can't help but make the same analogy. Lynn's four kids would cost 20k a year. How do they save for college?

I hope that clears it up for everyone. BCS receives $4000 less in tax revenues/student than does LASD. BCS parents make up the short fall. LASD kids are funded by you, the tax payer. BCS kids are partially funded by their parents, because the schools are not funded equally. BCS parents pay parcel taxes and property taxes. These taxes benefit LASD kids. They don't go to their own kids at BCS. In fact LASD gets an additional $4000 for every student that is at BCS. They get to keep the money that they would have spent on educating that BCS student in LASD schools.

Posted by lalla
a resident of another community
on Jun 20, 2012 at 3:03 pm

THANK YOU Taxpayer for the math... very informative... and i think everyone should be made aware of the funding....very very interesting......and to the children and parents at bullis charter school...a heartfelt bravo....keep up the excellent work....i support you and congratulate you 100%...

Posted by Doug Pearson
a resident of Blossom Valley
on Jun 20, 2012 at 4:04 pm

The Los Altos School District has been fighting Bullis Charter School every step of the way. Based on Taxpayer's math that doesn't make sense. I suspect BCS is getting costly benefits, e.g., their campus--inadequate though BCS thinks it--from LASD that do not figure into Taxpayer's analysis.

In any event, to the extent that BCS graduates better students I count it a success, regardless of the cost, and I'm pretty sure BCS parents do, too.

Posted by Taxpayer
a resident of another community
on Jun 20, 2012 at 6:49 pm

The math is correct. It doesn't mean they like the competition. I suspect if BCS was made up entirely of ELL students who qualify for free and reduced lunch who also have an IEP and live in the Almond or Santa Rita attendance areas they wouldn't fight it so much. They tried last fall to switch the preference area - it didn't work.

Posted by Dave Cortright
a resident of another community
on Jun 21, 2012 at 7:20 am

Taxpayer, you are wrong. In even the coarsest of estimates, LASD spends $9228/student-year whereas Bullis spends $11131. BCS spends over 20% more to educate each student.Web Link

And that does not even account for special ed (LASD spends $7.5 million/year on this, while BCS spends nothing), facilities (as Doug Pearson astutely points out, facilities costs for BCS students are actually charged to the LASD students), and paying teacher pensions. Back of the envelope math shows that BCS is spending about twice as much on each mainstreamed student as LASD.

Posted by taxpayer
a resident of another community
on Jun 21, 2012 at 10:03 pm

OR - you are confusing the money they spend on educating their current students vs. the tax revenues that they actually collect. LASD has made some very poor decisions, including offering lavish health care packages to current employees and retirees. They collect 10,500/student. -- about 2,000 of that goes to retirees. They also separate their budgets into two different parts - hiding the fact that they are not good stewards of the publics money.

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